"  A NATIONAL TREASURE "

 

The Brocket Hall Library , Chippendale Carved Giltwood Overmantle Looking Glass- Mirror as Loaned to the Leeds Museum June 2018 on the occassion of the Tri Centenary celebrating the birth of Thomas Chippendale Senior . General concencus being that this Unique Looking Glass is a superb example of the talent of Chippendale Senior and therefore one of the most historical and important pieces of the English Art of Furniture Design in the Eighteenth Century .

 

Of note .....Retaining practically all the original gold leaf .......images of 95 plus per cent  original available........replaced period plate ....

 

Of interest .... See In the image at Brocket Hall ( page 104  Chppendale Tercentenary Exhibition Leeds Museum  Catalogue ) the swag decoration to the wall above showing a carved anthemion which now rests atop of the Mirror .

This chimney glass was supplied for Lord Melbourne`s library at Brocket Hall probably in 1773 , shortly after the artist John Hamilton Mortimer and his assistants had completed the decoration of this room and the drawing room with historical and emblematical subjects.

The desire to create harmonious ensembles, linking the architectural and furnishing elements of an interior into a coherent decorative scheme , was one of the principal aims of early neo-classical architects and designers . In the library at Brocket it could be seen in the use of repeated and echoing motifs in the plasterwork ceiling, the bookcases, the chimney glass and the chairs. For example , the star-shaped central motif of the plasterwork ceiling was echoed in the glazing of the bookcases , together wiyh their scrolling acanthus leaves and anthemia, and these were found again surmounting the mirror rail .

Chippendale brought into play other favourite Antique motifs in this mirror .The central tablet with its lion mask and leafy festoons is identical to the seat rails of the chairs for the State Dressing room at Harewood ,while the satyr masks of the sides of the frame re-appear in the dining room pier glass also at Harewood .

 

 

 

Provenance  Sir Peniston Lamb 1st Viscount Melbourne 1745-1828,  Brocket Hall Herts Sale  ( Messrs Fosters, Pall Mall London ) 12-14 March 1923 lot 414,          Purchased by Malletts Bond Street London .

 

Exhibition   .Celebration of the Thomas Chippendale Tri Centary , Loan to Leeds Museum 2018

Exhibition.  Loan Exhibition Ronald PhillipsLtd , Celebrating Thomas Chippendale  " The Legacy of Thomas Chippendale " 2018

 

 

Literature  H Avray Tipping, " Brocket Hall Hertfordshire " Country Life, 11 July 1925, p60

literature   H Avray Tipping, English Homes Period V1, vol1, " Late Georgian 1760-1820, 1926. p 16 illus 25

Chippendale Society Newsletter July2006 Front Image, Adam Bowett and James Lomax 2018

 

Dimensions  Width 66 ins.....Height 42 ins

 

Reference    5244

 

POA

 

 

Ref No: 5244